One of the most important, unanswered questions in all of gaming is what would happen if the denizens of Animal Crossing staged a revolution, if not against the greedy tanuk Tom Nook then obviously a hidden oppressive regime in the background? Apparently, one viable answer is that it would be a musou game like Dynasty Warriors, as this is exactly the vibe of upcoming action-adventure Steam game Verminsteel.
Verminsteel does not yet have a release window, but it can be wishlisted on Steam now. It comes from developer Glass Bottom Games, which may not be a household name, but it has produced several strong games over the years. Before Verminsteel, this included Jones on Fire, Hot Tin Roof, Spartan Fist, and SkateBIRD. And yes, each game is essentially as chaotic as Verminsteel.
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What is Verminsteel?
At its core, Verminsteel is a game about animals doing people things. Players, human or otherwise, step into the shoes of a bird with a broadsword as they fight back thousands of fascists. Players can reportedly kick them so hard they fly into the sun, as not only do players resist this fascist occupation, but they help defend the helpless and push back the fascist regime, the titular Verminsteel, out of Fragaria—a fictional country. Maybe the real Verminsteel is the people-doing thing of playing games about animals doing people things.
Players are not alone, they can take a hoe-wielding badger, a mouse with a frying pan, and a plethora of Molotovs with them. Allies are needed in these fights against thousands (making it a prime musuo game), as well as weapons. According to the Steam page description, players will be able to wield “swords, Molotovs, frying pans, and more” as they claim strategic points, “go toe to toe with their powerful leaders,” and push back the enemy.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Players can accumulate combos throughout these battles in the Fragarian countryside, with Verminsteel enemies consisting of hostile rats, pigs, hawks, stoats, and more (not to be confused with the non-hostile villagers of Animal Crossing). As players accomplish missions, they’ll be able to save townsfolk and accept gifts from them, including new weapons, new combat skills, and more.
No GenAI is used in the development of Verminsteel. According to developer Glass Bottom Games, “we’ve no truck with that nonsense.”
Glass Bottom Games’ Gameography Explained
“We make absurdly memorable games about animals doing people things.”
- Jones on Fire (2013)
- Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore a Fedora (2015)
- Spartan Fist (2018)
- SkateBIRD (2021)
- Verminsteel
Many folks believe that a studio’s credits and creations can inform folks about their next project. And while that is an oversimplification in most cases, Glass Bottom Games’ has a simple mission statement: memorable games about animals doing people things. It should not be a surprise, then, that the games preceding Verminsteel feature anthropomorphic animals doing people things, although at one point it was just odd little people doing people things with animals. Video games.
Jones on Fire, for example, is a 2-button infinite running game where players avoid flames and save kitties. This is also a prequel to Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore a Fedora, as shared protagonist Emma Jones is a firefighter turned PI. In fact, she even teams up with Franky, the Cat, for “noir as heck’ adventures in Hot Tin Roof. Hot Tin Roof sees Emma and Franky investigate 4 distinct plots with multiple endings in an adventure game.
Jones can’t cut it as a PI, either, and turns to brawling. Spartan Fist is a first-persion brawling roguelite game where players attempt to earn the Spartan Fist, once again as Emma Jones, a totally normal human. SkateBIRD though? That replaces humans with BIRDs, who do their absolute best in a skateboarding game like the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Forget Emma Jones, forget humans at that, as neither are present in SkateBIRD or Verminsteel.
Verminsteel Is In Development
Beyond the general premise, the Animal Crossing-like critters, the Dynasty Warriors-like gameplay, and the pedigree of the studio, Steam users can expect a plethora of features from Verminsteel:
- Become a storied hero and master an accessible yet deep combat system.
- Play as other characters like Clod the badger and Cookie the mouse, tag-teaming to them mid-fight and utilizing their specialized skills to overwhelm enemies in any situation.
- Rally other rescued allies to join the strengthening revolution! Order your followers in to support you with massed squad maneuvers like arrow volleys or charges. For Fragaria!
- Equip and upgrade the scavenged weapons of three distinct classes to grow more powerful with every skirmish.
- Bash enemies’ skulls to original hardcore bardcore beats.
- What became of Emma Jones? The world may never know
- Wishlist Verminsteel on Steam
Ultimately, Verminsteel promises to be the chaotic, absurd, and strangely heartwarming culmination of Glass Bottom Games’ obsession with animals doing people things. It’s a simple, cutesy premise applied to one of the deepest themes humanity has to offer: liberation in the face of fascist tyranny. No doubt, fans of the studio will recognize the DNA of SkateBIRD here, but Verminsteel is also its own thing (even if both games involve birds).
Verminsteel feels like one of those games where one key feature invites you and the rest keeps you. And whether saving townsfolk from certain death, smashing rats into the sun, or the general chaos of Verminsteel invites or keeps you, it’s clear that this is a revolution game worth keeping an eye on.
